Wednesday, August 17, 2011

THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH

This is the movie that contains the line "I used to love trains."
It is uttered poignantly by the character played by Candy Clark.
I put all of the commenters in a hat and came up with Kevin Tipple.

If you email me your address, I will send along the book. Thanks for playing everyone. I know the line was obscure, but I wanted anyone who put something down to have a crack at it.

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I saw a new cut of this at the Detroit Film Theater last week and unlike my three companions, I didn't get much out of it. I understood the plot well enough, but it seemed repetitive and nonsensical at points. It seemed to be in love with its own sense of profundity. Long scenes with nothing happening prevail in this film.

After two hours, my mind wanders, my feet turn to cement. I liked the sound track more than the movie, I think.

Any fans of the movie out there? What makes it work for you? My companions felt it was poignant, sexy, and perfectly captured the seventies.

I missed it, I guess. But boy, there was a lot of naked bodies compared to films today. Anyone read the Tevis novel? I think it was set a decade earlier, which in a way makes more sense given the sixties paranoia.

FIELD OF DREAMS starring Kevin Costner, one of three failed guesses, had this line, "I used to love travelling on the trains from town to town." Was I way off the mark! I hadn't heard of THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH until now. I like only some of David Bowie's music; let's see if I like him as a visiting alien. He looks the part, though.

They surely do. Indian Railways—the world's fourth largest rail network after those of USA, Russia and China—runs on over 64,000 km (nearly 40,000 miles) of track and passes through over 7,000 stations. A veritable city on wheels. Indians love their trains too.

I loved it -- and all the cast. But not sure I could sit through an entire run-through on the big screen right about now without an altered state. Maybe better in bits now. It's weird and sometimes tedious, no mistake.

Man, I took the train idea far too literally as did most of the contestants. Way off base. An excellent Nicolas Roeg movie. Saw this when I was in my David Bowie obsessive phase so many decades ago. I tried to collect all his albums in a period of five years. Got quite a few and now - all lost in a horrible mix-up of a move from state to state. A tragedy to a collector like me.

Oh Candy Clark! She and Karen Black were two of the best indie actresses of the 1970s. You know, I saw Clark in some indie movie made only a few years ago playing the mother of a gay guy and she still has her acting chops all these decades later. She was a bright spot in an otherwise forgettable movie. Can't even tell you the title. But Candy Clark was there for sure.

Patricia (Patti) Abbott

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at aa2579@wayne.edu

About Me

Patricia Abbott is the author of more than 125 stories that have appeared online, in print journals and in various anthologies. She is the author of two ebooks, MONKEY JUSTICE and HOME INVASION and co-editor of DISCOUNT NOIR. She won a Derringer award for her story "My Hero." She lives outside Detroit.

CONCRETE ANGEL

Polis Books, 2015

CONCRETE ANGEL

An atmospheric and eagerly awaited debut novel from acclaimed crime writer Patricia Abbott, set in Philadelphia in the 1970s about a family torn apart by a mother straight out of Mommie Dearest, and her children who are at first victims but soon learn they must fight back to survive. Eve Moran has always wanted “things” and has proven both inventive and tenacious in getting and keeping them. Eve lies, steals, cheats, swindles, and finally commits murder, paying little heed to the cost of her actions on those who love her. Her daughter, Christine, compelled by love, dependency, and circumstance, is caught up in her mother’s deceptions, unwilling to accept the viciousness that runs in her mother's blood. Eve’s powers of seduction are hard to resist for those who come in contact with her toxic allure. It’s only when Christine’s three-year old brother, Ryan, begins to prove useful to her mother, and she sees a pattern repeating itself, that Christine finds the courage and means to bring an end to Eve’s tyranny.